Buster Keaton and Guitars

Buster Keaton films are the very definition of classic; they are time machines to an era of simplicity and authenticity, and I am always struck by how real it all seems, despite the obvious ridiculousness of the plots and slapstick. This was filmmaking in its purest magic, before special effects became the attraction. It is the characters and the core of their actions, be they brutal physical comedy or tender facial expressions, that hold our attention and connect with an audience a century later. Thia week I attended two evenings of the New York Guitar Festival featuring seven Buster Keaton…

Book of Mormon

I love a spectacle and Book of Mormon delivers. Broadway is all about over-the-top song and dance and this show pays homage to the medium while simultaneously mocking its culture. The ridiculousness of of our obsession with entertainment is one micro-target of this show, and Broadway/Orlando worship is akin to religious worship here, with Mormonism serving as the kebab of this perfectly executed skewering. In a way, bashing this religion is too easy; it seems obvious that it was completely invented by a mortal man with a keen sense of drama who hooked his followers with a tale that makes…

Shakespeare In The Park

The man could write. His works are still the standard by which all theatre is judged. Every play is epic; a dense thicket involving love, betrayal, violence and wisdom. The characters are the grandest ideals or darkest corners of our own psyche and play out macrocosms of the subtle moral conflicts we engage daily. Every word he writes carries ten more words' worth of meaning and twist the plot dizzyingly. It is great literature and scintillating theatre. Alaina is hooked up at Central Park's Delacourt Theatre, which means we don't have to queue up beforehand for the always free tickets.…

Sleep No More

I am still baffled by what I witnessed last night and have been thinking about it constantly since I left the performance; it takes place inside the abandoned McKittrick hotel in Chelsea and audience members are free to explore four floors of exquisitely decorated rooms, each one an art installation of bizarre bric-a-brac that conjures an eerie mystique. Performers move through the spaces and interact with one another and audience members, all of whom are instructed to wear uniform white masks concealing identities and reactions. The piece is based on Macbeth and while the scenes allude to the events of…

What’s New?

In a tree in the Green-Wood Cemetery across from my balcony is a Robin's nest I have been binocularing in on and today I saw three little beaks open above the lip of the nest to be fed from mom. It was beautiful. It is hard to believe its been a month since I last wrote here, but it has been a month full of good entertainment. We saw some great Theatre (Blackwatch, Under Construction, Warhorse, Sister Act and seeing Sleep No More tonight), have experienced some great outdoor Brooklyn events (Fifth Ave Street Fair and Food Truck Rally), started…

When Outside Becomes Lovely

Shelter in Winter is essential, but around this time I yearn to shed it! Windows and doors fly open and I soak in the natural warmth. Preparing to spend time outdoors in the cold is taxing, requiring layers of mental and physical reinforcements, but as the temperature rises our need to be bundled falls and our focus shifts from maintaining maximum core heat with efficient insulation to bathing in solar omnipotence. I have made recent excursions to The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and The Green-Wood Cemetery to enjoy the beautiful displays of plant regeneration that occurs after their own period of…

Peter and The Starcatcher

This is amazingly fun theater. It is creative and celebrates imagination in so many ways, appealing to all ages and is a play in the best, most playful, sense of the word. The story is a prequel to Peter Pan with an absurdly hilarious cast of misfits sailing the high seas using spartan props to create elaborate scenes with Gondry-style guerrilla effects. The wordplay is fast and clever, slipping in something for everyone, young or old or high or low. Nobody is excluded in this world. I love working with kids because they are so creative and always flowing with…

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Their music sounds like nothing else; eminating soundwaves create an aural sea of vibrations for mental flotation... It is grand and glacial, creeping along while building and releasing intensity in epic breaths that last night's venue could not have suited any better. St. John's Church on 60th and Columbus is one of those truly impressive spectacles you would go visit on a trip to Europe, but seeing as I never go to church in my own country except for the occasional wedding, I would not typically find myself in such a space; quite a shame for its extraordinary beauty. Luckily,…

The Prospect Park West Bike Lane

When NYC DOT installed this bike lane in June 2010 I was overjoyed. It made my daily commute much safer, more enjoyable and it sent a message that biking was encouraged in this city where it is so necessary to reduce traffic and pollution. To make this lane, the high-speed, three-lane (plus two parking lane) superhighway known as Prospect Park West was reduced to two driving lanes with a row of parked cars acting as a barrier between bikes and cars. Sure, it was brilliant and improved safety while encouraging healthier lifestyles but this is Park Slope, Brooklyn, one of…

The Banya and Halusky

I took a trip down to the Russian bathhouse Sandoony USA yesterday and was finally enlightened to the exoic pleasures of the banya. With three saunas, a steamroom, hottub, small pool and ever-essential frigid dunktub, there was plenty of extreme temperature variation and testing of human tolerance; the body only enjoys so much warmth before it enters pre-panic mode and begins to sweat, then finally begins screaming at the brain to remedy the situation. At that point evacuating 190 degrees of heat and plunging into 50 degrees of water seems like a pretty good idea. And it is extremely refreshing.…